Reckoning With The Ugly Racist Origins Of Some Of American English’s Most Common Expressions

“‘Sold down the river.’ ‘Cakewalk.’ ‘Master and slave.’ American English is riddled with words and phrases with racist origins or undertones. Since the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis and the flurry of protests his and other Black Americans’ deaths have inspired, a growing number of public and private institutions are reevaluating their reliance on language with racist connotations or history.” – The Boston Globe